Pat Cranor is known for creating his own original style of work. A native
Californian, he moved to Japan in 1986. There Pat started painting the
ORIENT as viewed by a foreigner and developed his style with watercolors
and color markers and pens. After his first son was born, Pat took up
painting ANIMALS in a style of taking one image, repeating it, and putting
it into the composition. In 1996 he started painting
KACHINAS after
traveling through Colorado, where he purchased his first Kachina doll and
developed a great interest in the art and traditions of Native Americans.
With the turn of the Century, Pat went 180 degrees with his original
MIXED
MEDIA on wood tiles that were influenced from his graphic design
background.
Keeping with his Japanese style of painting in watercolors and with the birth of his son in 1989, Pat found himself drawn increasingly to his innate love of patterns, and the influence of M.C. Escher. Weaving these influences together gave him an imaginative approach to his favorite of all subject matters: animals.
In 1996 he started painting Kachinnas after traveling through Colorado, where he purchased his first Kachina doll and developed a great interest in the art and traditions of Native Americans. The Paintings are mixed media of native costumes with hiergrighics backgrounds.
In 1987, Pat and his wife moved to Japan. There Pat began painting the striking, colorful and culture-clashing scenes he saw all around. Living in Osaka and Kobe for more than five years, Pat developed a particular admiration for the wood block prints of the Edo period. He was so influenced that he even developed his own similar style of brushing layer upon layer of brilliantly vivid textured watercolors evocative of the Japanese wood block print technique.
Pat’s Mixed Media work is an expression of his own unique style of combining bold colors with patterns of nature. Each piece is original and one of a kind. The multi-step process combines acrylic and metallic paints on hand painted wood that is cut into squares, grouped and mounted to form a finished piece of art.